


Walzer mit Mir

by tieflingtears



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Drabble, F/M, aka "the zemnian bunch"
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-08
Updated: 2019-07-08
Packaged: 2020-06-24 19:24:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19730227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tieflingtears/pseuds/tieflingtears
Summary: Essentially just an image I've had in my head since the Caleb backstory reveal that I had to put into words. Featuring Caleb, Astrid, and Eodwulf, who are to me the quintessential "teenage assholes."





	Walzer mit Mir

**Author's Note:**

> Bren, Astrid, and Eodwulf have just been given the news that they've been chosen to go under private tutelage by Trent Ikithon. They go out to celebrate. At this time, Bren is 15, Astrid and Eodwulf are 16.

Eodwulf always carried with him a charm that Astrid nor I could match. His thick eyebrows gently disclosed any meaning he intended, and one glance or gesture held a command one was wont to obey.

He slipped into the tavern ahead of us, making soft footsteps on the wood of the empty floor, late enough through dusk that the tables were packed against the wall, and flicked a gold to the woman sat at the piano. She caught it, nodded, and stepped down from the stage to sit by the bar.

Eodwulf claimed his place on the seat. The few lingering guests hadn't paid half an ear of attention to the pianist prior, but Eod commanded to be seen. He played a few experimental notes.

_ Ja,  _ the joy of routine.

Before I knew it, Astrid clasped my hand in one of her's and a sharp snap echoed from the other. The dull wood floor beneath our feet had faded into a rich crimson carpet, which she was now dragging me through.

Protests came spewing from the barman, but with a grin and a snap of his own fingers Eodwulf had shut him up. Our turf.

"Your dramatics make fools of you, meine lieblinge," I said, soundlessly raising spheres of light above us like stars. "The snap was never nece-"

And before I had finished my words, Astrid's nose was pressed almost up to mine. "Since when don't we spare time for the unnecessary?"

As if on cue, Eodwulf's fingers had made contact with the ivory, and a waltz rang through the tavern-turned-ballroom. We could still feel the nailed wood beneath our feet, but with attention placed elsewhere the illusion worked perfectly; my attention, though at constant alert to all, could definitely be persuaded elsewhere with Astrid's fingers, tough to the tip and bare, woven between mine, bony and painted.

The beauty of the moment, the three of us, same song, same steps, same fleeting ballroom, was rather soon to fade in the shadow of our triumph. Routine was good, but an occasional like this called for more, and as Astrid pulled me closer and the warmth between us flared, I knew exactly how to break it.

Timed perfectly - on a note, momentous and tense, I broke one hand away from Astrid's clasp and spun it behind me as I leaned in, inches away from her ear but my addressee the world around her -

" _ Cor ignis." _

As simple as two words, as a step in a waltz, from my palm sprung a tornado of scorching flame,wrapping around me and my darling. From Eodwulf's piano I heard a dark, wry chuckle, and in my darling's eyes a brief suspension of fear. I could see the reflection: myself, one arm around her and one raised in the air, silhouetted against a barrier of fire. She blinked, grinned, and resumed the waltz: our steps now echoed in flame.


End file.
